Graduation Project - Where the money is made

Silent lines of code have replaced the sweat and shouts of human traders on the floor of the exchange. Algorithms buy and sell in reaction to unfolding real world events, fake news and social media trends. Supercomputers enable financial firms to trade at beyond-human speeds—approximately 200 times faster than a blink of an eye. Algorithmic trading, also known as high-frequency trading, accounts for 70 percent of all stock market activity.

The project brings this invisible and obscure financial power to light by tracing lines of algorithmic capital to where some of the greatest profits are being made today. Guided by the geometric lines-of-sight between microwave transmitters and receivers, the work documents the resolutely physical landscapes of an immaterial market.

Thesis - How to make weak stories stronger and strong stories weaker

An investigation into invisible phenomena and how they affect power mechanisms: from the “politics of visibility” – how some people are culturally and socially more visible than others, to “hyperobjects” – such as climate change or economic infrastructure; concepts so complex they “defeat traditional ideas of what a thing is in the first place“ (Morton, 2013).

Can visual storytelling propose new ways of seeing? What narratives may help represent, discover, reveal and motivate positive alternatives for future living?